Apparently there's a guy who got the one and only Illinois plate that says "Chicago" on it (7 characters max on a standard American tag, so it's the only one in the state). Kept getting stolen, over and over-he was shelling out tons of money on replacement plates. At that point, I'd have given the registration up. (Which a friend of mine did. Her initials were "D.D.", so she got some form of "Deuces" on it with a number or something. After the third replacement plate and ticket for not having two plates on the car, she gave up)

I suppose the shortsighted fellow who chose the "NONE" tag didn't anticipate the hundreds of tickets that would land on his account, each one written on an illegally parked or abandoned car that had no plates at all.

Doctors parking lots are always good fodder for number plates. At work most mornings I walk past a 'HPS N LPS'. Would have thought a plastic surgeon would spring for more than a Rav 4, but then he probably leaves the good cars at home.

Long ago and in a far country I knew a young woman of fair face and fine
figure.

During the same few months I had seen a young man of presentable aspect
driving a bright red DeTomaso Pantera in the neighborhood where the woman
worked.

I was interested in the woman because of her appearance, and because I knew
her profession required intellect and toughness.

I was interested in the man because I wondered how long it would be before
he met his comeuppance.

The woman was both statically and dynamically lovely, and when I could, I
would watch her walk from her office building, across an intersection and to
the site of her work performance.

I was certain that someday the man would not show up to make his customary
right turn at that intersection. My clue was: his car license plate read,
"NINE INS" (or close to that).

I was not mistaken: he did show up one last time, and I watched it. The
woman was waiting for the light to change so she could cross his path. He
rolled up to make his turn, but stopped dead in front of her. She bent to
look in to his car, nodded, then motioned him to round the corner and drive
into a parking lot. He did. I followed, to be within earshot.

You can imagine what he was expecting. What he got from her was, "You should
be more careful about who you expose yourself to." She showed him her Deputy
District Attorney badge, and arrested him.

I never saw him again, nor his car, but she became a Judge of the Superior
Court.

Originally posted by David Birchall How about Coombes MkII Jag "Buy 12", it actually means "Buy one too" or so I was told when working as a petrol pump attendant (Gas jockey) in the early sixties just down the road from Coombes garage.

& on the same theme wan't DAD10 -(that has been mentioned before), "Daddy Oh"

BAC 010 She was the tenth applicant satisfied with initals B A C and her place in line.
before it could emerge as a regular issue, which would have eventuated.

Everyone in her profession knew BAC 0.10 was then the 'legal limit' for blood alcohol content in milliliters per decaliter (?). It's now .08 in California.

I wonder if anyone would support my conjecture that the current "ego plates" evolved from the original apellation: "eco plates"; the extra funds generated by personalization went and still (I hope) go to environmental protection projects, "ecology", in a word. For a while they were "eco", then "vanity", now "ego". Something of a serendipitous evolution, eh?

In the 65mph traffic jam on the M1 yesterday afternoon, I drove along in proximity to a latest model Mercedes CL600. It was occupied by a couple in their 70s, who didn't look as though they had two ha'pennies to rub together, but which was obviously not the case bearing in mind the list price of those motors. The registration number was TW1. Somewhere in the back of my mind is a motor sport connection with this number - any ideas?

Needless to say, the Merc disappeared into the distance once the traffic cleared - the old boy behind the wheel was no slouch, and I didn't have a hope in hell of keeping up with him in my "for the day" Astra Diesel, even if I was travelling at points-acquiring speeds myself.

The DVLA used to be a bit antsy with some combos, DT was not used for years as it suggested "delirium tremens" and AFAIK FUK has never been issued in Britain. But wasn't the RAC Rally once won by a POO?

And doesn't Les Leston's son have DAD 102? (Daddyo 2?)

The only plates in Britain where the serial number is zero are to be found on Lord Mayoral cars - LM 0 in London, G 0 in Glasgow and S 0 in Edinburgh. Some towns have the first registration from their 1 or 2 letter code reserved for the Mayor - e.g. Walsall's Mayor has the number DH 1. Aston Villa chairman Doug Ellis has 1 AV on his Roller (probably could not get W4 NKA) and Blues chairman David Gold's "Goldsmobile" has H13 CFC.

There once was an ageing but well maintained Ford Popular based roadster going by the nick name 'Bessie', which had a 'stage name' plate of WHO 1. It had another plate for driving around on non-closed roads. The later Whomobile had a proper plate set into the resin IIRC. Bessie, still owned by the BBC made a comeback appearance for the final season of the series in 1989 after not being seen since 1974, well final until a month ago with the big relaunch which smashed the ratings with the ninth Doctor at the helm of the TARDIS (no car mind you)

This was all part of satisfying Jon Pertwee's addiction to gadgets, he would have loved Stirling Moss' flat. Pertwee actually owned the Whomobile, which was registerred, I think, as a motorised tricycle. It was supposed to be a hovercraft but underneath the fibreglass fairing sat three wheels and a small engine.

Reference "Mayoral" cars I do not know when it started in England but I can tell you that in both Edinburgh and Glasgow the Lord Provost's cars, S0 and G0 respectively came about because the very first Glasgow registration number, G1 was taken up by R.J.Smith, the first secretary of the Royal Scottish Automobile Club and the first Edinburgh registration number, S1, was sold to W Keith Elliot, the Ford dealer in the city at that time. Both were later asked by local authority flunkies to donate their numbers for the respective Lords Provosts cars but both refused and so the local councils adopted the numbers S0 and G0.
The G1 number was later owned by Sir Hugh Fraser who founded the House of Fraser and then signed over to his garage company Callanders and it was the number used on their demonstrater for many years afterwards.

I recently saw a red Ferrari near Esher in Surrey (UK) bearing the registration ‘POP IDOL’. As it was clearly a UK registered car, I guess this must be a freeform adaptation of ‘POP 100L ‘ but it was VERY clearly all spelled out in letters, with no digits on the plate at all.

Being a Ferrari owner, he can probably afford to pay the fines if the law get sniffy with him over his non-compliant number plates. But I don’t know who it was – anyone know? Not Simon Cowell of course (he is more into bling-bling drug-dealer type Mercedes) but maybe the other Simon (Fuller?) who I think was the brains behind the programme.

The law was reinforced recently on this subject, now incorrect typefaces, spacing, and mutilation of characters, if stopped by the police will earn you a £1000 fine AND the number will be confiscated without compensation, - because of course the worst crime in this country now is not to be identifiable on a speed camera and damage revenue intake.

How about 666 DTV on Gerry Marshalls Vauxhall Firenza road car.
I seem to remember John Popes Vauxhall Magnum superloon with an Aston Martin engine had an unusual number plate, as he used to drive it to and from race meetings,does anyone remember it.

It seems this thread is taking on a split personality. On the one hand the most humorous or apt registrations on road cars, on the other hand famous registations on racing cars.

In the first category there is the picture of an Audi A2 (I drive such a car) a colleague once sent me with the German registration DÜW-ME..., which is dutch for push me. I also remember the German Ford Team in the London-Sydney Marathon which all had K-UT... numbers, which in dutch is rather rude.

On the more serious front, I would politely like to point you to my web page (www.vasmel.com) where there is a vast collection of registration plates on racing cars. Especially intended at picture collectors who want to identify a car by its license plate. Of course this is far from complete, so if any of you can add somehing, please feel free to do so.

Pure vanity I know, but for obvious reasons I always fancied the number SEN10R. Unfortunately, I understand that it's already spoken for, and attached to a Toyota Land Crusher Amazon. So if anyone out there spots it and thinks it's mine, it isn't, and I can't stand those "cars" anyway.

Originally posted by Alan Cox The greatest living Englishman uses SM 7 on his road car.

Just wanted to see that 'Greatest Living Englishman' bit again in bold, but I'm sure I've seen him riding a Lambretta bearing that number.

And didn't the late Rob Walker have RW 7? I remember seeing it on a dark blue Facel Vega. The owner of my local garage knew the car, he told me that RW had the speedo recalibrated to under-read massively. Seems that Mrs Walker refused to drive it, saying it was much too fast for her, but apparently if she only saw 70mph on the clock when she was doing about 110, she felt much happier. Long before the advent of speed cameras of course.

Here in Western Australia, personal plates are allowed with pretty free format. My RR has RR 1970 (on it when I bought it). The only one I have seen that has raised a snicker out of me was on an accountant's Jag XJ6: 0REGRETS.

Just remembered another one, Louis Stanley owned BRM 10, I saw it on a dark blue Daimler, probably a Double Six. I'd not long passed my test, thought I was going pretty fast along the A1M, when this car swept past at well over 100, chauffeur driven with two imperious figures, Louis & Jean in the back, her hair was unmistakeable. As before, no speed cameras in those days, and I saw the car several more times after that, always passing everything else on the road. A few years later, I met Louis at his Cambridge home, most pompous man I ever saw, but I rather liked him. Probably a lot more than I'd like the present occupant of that same house, that pillar of moral rectitude Jeffrey Archer. They must have met, and I'd have loved to listened in to house-buying conversations between those two.